11 Movie Franchises We Wish Weren’t Dead

With just sixteen minutes of screen-time, Anthony Hopkins’s performance as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs is the shortest ever to win an Oscar for Best Actor and is still one of cinema’s most treasured feats.

The film itself is one of few films to win all “Big Five” Academy Awards, and subsequent Hopkins instalments did a great job at expanding the series.

The sequels and prequel showed us an evolution of a monster, a man’s journey from being respected to being feared, and what we get from the trilogy is the perfect blend of fun, excitement and fear.

Could There Be A Comeback?

In 2009, rumours surfaced of Ridley Scott and Anthony Hopkins reteaming to bring the antihero back, with Cate Blanchett said to be ear-marked for Clarice. Then, more recently, writer of the sadly cancelled TV series Hannibal Bryan Fuller told The Hollywood Reporter: “There is something in the novel Hannibal that has not been done in any of the adaptations and I would love to explore that with Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter.”

No doubt fans would want Hopkins to star in any series continuations, but the Welshman stands firm in his refusal to bring the character back to life, going as far as to label it a "huge mistake" ever agreeing to reprise the role in the first place.